[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., NEB., CALIF., USA
Jan. 28 KANSAS: Becker launches new bid to eliminate death penalty Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, is beginning anew a campaign to abolish the death penalty in Kansas. "I'm on a quest to accomplish this," said Becker, who began his efforts in 2013, his 1st year in the House. When a bill in 2015 failed to get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, Becker began 2016 with a strategy to start the bill through the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. However, then-Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, assigned it to Judiciary, where it died without a hearing. This is a new session, new leadership, new members. On Wednesday, a death penalty bill, House Bill 2167, was introduced bearing the names of 15 sponsors. All 3 political factions in the House - conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans, and Democrats - are represented on the list of sponsors, according to Becker. There are Republicans: Reps. Becker, Tory Marie Arnberger, Great Bend; Susan Concannon, Beloit; Diana Dierks, Salina; Mike Houser, Columbus; Jan Kessinger, Overland Park; Joy Koesten, Leawood; and Bill Sutton, Gardner. And Democrats: Reps. Tim Hodge, North Newton; John Carmichael, Wichita; Broderick Henderson, Kansas City; Boog Highberger, Lawrence; Eber Phelps, Hays; Annie Kuether, Topeka; and Tom Sawyer, Wichita. The bill would create the crime of aggravated murder with sentencing of imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. It would not be retroactive. It states: "No person shall be sentenced to death for a crime committed on or after July 1, 2017." Any person sentenced before that date may be put to death, the bill reads. Unlike a version Becker promoted in a prior year, this bill does not call for creating a death penalty fund for the annual actual or projected cost savings from ending the death penalty and giving the Secretary of the Department of Corrections discretion over the fund. Savings under this new bill would benefit the general fund, he said. This bill has been assigned to the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. Chairman is Rep. J. Russell Jennings, R-Lakin, who, like Becker, is a moderate Republican. The committee's ranking minority member is Highberger, one of the bill's sponsors. Also, 3 other sponsors are on the committee - Koesten, Kuether and Becker himself. He's hopeful the bill will get a hearing and advance to the House floor for a vote. "I'm an attorney and I see the negatives outweigh the positives" of having a death penalty, said freshman Rep. Hodge, a sponsor. "Life imprisonment without parole is quite possibly a worse sentencing than death, in some cases." Kansas has abolished the death penalty before. The current death penalty was implemented in July 1994. No one has been executed under that law. The last execution in Kansas was in 1965. The Kansas Coalition against the Death Penalty argues death penalty cases trigger expensive litigation, punishment is unevenly applied and wrongful convictions have occurred. (source: hutchnews.com) ** Attorney seeking death penalty for triple shooting suspect Prosecutors said Friday they plan to seek the death penalty against a 35-year-old man accused of killing 3 people near Moundridge in October. "The State has filed a notice to seek the death penalty on Jereme Nelson," Harvey County Attorney David Yoder said in an e-mailed news release, referring to 1 of 2 people accused in the Oct. 30 shooting deaths of Travis Street, 33; Angela Graevs, 37; and Richard Prouty, 52. The other person implicated is Myrta Rangel, 31. Yoder did not say whether he would seek death against her. Both are charged with capital murder and 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in connection with the shootings. Street, Graevs and Prouty were found dead outside of a rural home on Spring Lake Road near Moundridge where Street and Graevs lived with their 18-month-old son. The toddler was found inside the home screaming but unharmed after authorities were alerted to the killings. Nelson and Rangel fled to Mexico after allegedly carrying out the shootings. They were captured Jan. 12 by Mexican authorities and on Thursday were extradited back to Kansas to face charges. They are awaiting first appearances before Harvey County District Court Judge Joe Dickinson. (source: kansas.com) NEVADA: Murder case against Brandy Stutzman, facing death penalty, goes to jury Brandy Stutzman helped ditch the killer's bloody clothes, sent text messages to her husband, knowing he was dead, then feigned surprise when she found his body in his northern valley home, prosecutors said Friday. She had just sent the couple's 5-year-old son off to a park with the man who had stabbed Joe Stutzman 15 times, severing his ring finger. In late 2010, the 31-year-old Las Vegas woman had convinced 19-year-old Jeremiah Merriweather to kill 32-year-old Joe Stutzman "because of her
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., OHIO
Jan. 28 TEXAS: Report: Texas bought seized execution drugs from India Texas prison officials in 2015 arranged to buy lethal-injection drugs from a company in India that was busted for selling psychotropic drugs and opioids illegally to people in Europe and the United States, a new report claims. When that deal fell through, they bought $25,000 worth of execution drugs from another supplier in India, a shipment seized in Houston by U.S. drug enforcers as an illegal importation, according to the report in BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed, in a detailed story posted late Thursday, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials notified the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Jan. 8, 2015 that they would be importing a large amount of sodium thiopental, Texas' execution drug, as required by a DEA license the agency holds. "TDCJ will be importing Thiopental Sodium in 1 gram vials for a total of 500 to 1,000 grams per purchase/importation," a DEA investigative report published with the article shows. "TDCJ will be importing from the following supplier: Provizer Pharma." Before the sale could be completed, however, Indian drug enforcement authorities raided Provizer Pharma's offices in the city of Surat, arrested five employees and seized an assortment of drugs, many of which are used as "party pills" in the United States, India's Narcotics Control Bureau called the raid a "significant seizure." Weeks later, Texas turned to another supplier in India -- identified in leaked DEA documents as Chris Harris -- and that shipment was seized in July 2015 at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. A second shipment bound for Arizona was seized at the same time. The seizures came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had warned Texas and its supplier, along with Arizona and Nebraska, that attempts to import the drugs would be illegal and that the shipments would be confiscated, officials earlier confirmed. A federal court at one point blocked its importation. The BuzzFeed report provides new details about the source of Texas' execution drugs, long a secret that the state has battled in courts to keep out of public view, and of the lengths to which Texas and other states have gone to obtain them. In recent years, as most companies in the United States and Europe have stopped making the drugs used in U.S. executions or prohibited their sale for lethal use, Texas and other states have had to resort to secondary suppliers where purchases have proven to be much more difficult. Critics of the death penalty also have questioned whether the quality of those drugs can more easily be compromised, and whether they will kill condemned inmates without pain and suffering -- a key element in whether the use of those drugs could compromise the legal administration of the death penalty. The Texas-bound executions drugs seized in July 2015 remain in DEA custody. Earlier this month, Texas sued the FDA seeking to release the drugs, accusing the agency of "gross incompetence or willful obstruction," according to court filings. In its lawsuit, Texas referred to the source of the lethal drugs only as a "foreign distributor." While the source of Texas' execution drugs used to be publicly available, state officials in recent years have made information about their suppliers a guarded secret as suppliers for the drugs dried up, some driven by pressure from death penalty opponents in the United States and Europe. Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the information secret, and state officials have fought since then to keep as many details as possible under wraps, including a threat against the DEA not to identify the supplier in the pending lawsuit over the confiscation. Texas prison officials declined late Thursday to discuss any details in the BuzzFeed story, other than to say they had "not engaged in any transaction" with Provizer. They declined further comment. "The story is highly speculative and inaccurate," said TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark, declining to discuss any details. "TDCJ has a statutory responsibility to carry out court ordered executions in Texas," Clark said. "All drugs used in the lethal injection process are legally purchased and are tested by an independent lab for both potency and purity to ensure they meet national standards." (source: Houston Chronicle) Texas Sought Banned Death Penalty Drugs From Overseas Party DealersIn the future, President Trump's lifelong fanaticism for capital punishment could make such shady deals unnecessary. Lethal injectionBrian Baer/ZUMA Press/NewscomThe state of Texas - hell bent on procuring banned drugs to be used in lethal injection executions - nearly completed a deal with 5 party drug dealers in India before the men were arrested. According to an absolutely bonkers report in Buzzfeed, Indian court documents reveal Provizer Pharma - the company equally
